12. Troy

Ibrood alone in my room, resting my head in my hands.

My bed still reeks of Rian, even after all these weeks, and it wasn"t the reunion I was hoping for.

By now, I was hoping to knot him six ways by Tuesday, but instead, he is playing host to that fucking Omega

What the hell was he thinking?

What were they both thinking bringing her here?

She"s a runaway Omega. She belongs at the Academy.

She is not our problem, and the sooner we get rid of her, the better.

She cannot stay.

The only people I care about in this world are Jeremy, Leo, and Rian.

Rian is my fucking soul mate. I felt it the day he turned up at our doorstep—a Beta soldier fresh from training, and I had never seen a more enduring creature.

I knew from the moment I gazed into his moss-green eyes that I needed to protect him.

We have been inseparable ever since. I was even the first to bite him into our pack.

Jeremy and Leo have grown close with him too.

However, only I know his secret, and I have vowed to keep it from my pack brothers.

I respect my Beta too much. I will not betray his trust.

We will tell the others eventually. But only when the time is right.

When Rian feels assured that the government won"t take him away from us or make him re-register his designation and strip him of his rights.

No one will take him away from us. Away from me…

Rian is mine. I knew it from the day my Alpha caught wind of his sweet baby powder.

But now, he has only gone and fucked it all up by bringing that doe-eyed Omega home.

How could he do this? After how hard we have tried to keep his secret.

He"s an idiot, and now it just makes us an even greater target.

When the government finds out we"re harboring an Omega fugitive, what"s to stop them from taking Rian too?

They will want to investigate all of us.

After all, we are breaking the law, and fuck Jeremy… He should know better.

He"s been hunting Omegas for years, but now he suddenly had to develop a conscience.

There comes a knock at the door, and I pick up on Jeremy"s scent.

I growl. "Fuck off, Jay…"

He bangs this time. "Troy, it"s Rian. He wants to organize a pack meeting."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. I feel a headache coming on, but I rise, making my way to the door.

It"s about time we all talked.

Hopefully, they have all come to their senses and have decided to kick the Omega out onto the curb.

At the end of the day, she is not our problem.

She will only bring misery to our pack.

I don"t look at Jeremy when I open the door. He merely throws his hands up, backing away to the wall as I storm out of the room.

Maybe after this meeting, things can return to normal, and Rian and I can finally fuck.

I"ve had a hard-on since he arrived home.

But I won"t deny that he"s not the only one making me hard…

A certain caramel-scented female is giving me lewd thoughts too, and I push them aside, heading downstairs.

***

Silence befalls the four of us as Rian finally finishes his tale.

Belle—the name of our new guest— is currently sleeping in her room upstairs, and she"s certainly making herself at home.

Why doesn"t she just crawl back to whatever gutter she came from?

Or better yet, why doesn"t she crawl to the Academy?

We don"t need her grief.

So, according to the fuckable lips of my Beta, Belle has no idea that she is even an Omega...

She doesn"t even know what an Alpha or a Beta is.

How convenient.

She thinks we"re all just normal humans with ordinary genitals that don"t fuck like animals, and give me a break.

They seriously don"t believe that crap, do they?

How old is she? Twenty-one?

Well, if her scent is anything to go by, then yes. She is approaching twenty-one.

Omegas get their first heat around their twenty-first birthday.

It can sometimes be delayed a few years, but the average Omega usually gets their first heat by that age.

And it"s all the more reason to get rid of her.

We do not need her Omega hormones all over this house. Alphas go feral when an Omega is in heat, and I want to keep my wits about me, thank you.

I scoff, resting my leg over my knee.

The others look at me.

Leo, my usual buddy in crime, looks as if he wants to gut me.

"Are we certainly going to believe a word that Omega says?"

Leo growls, and I toss him a pointed look. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

He"s an idiot. That Omega is only going to destroy him.

If he was smart, he would keep away, and not let her get under his skin.

As much as I am pissed at Jeremy right now, at least he has the sense to stay away from her.

Rian, on the other hand… I have no idea where to start with him.

Sure, a Beta may be attracted to an Omega from time to time.

In fact, it was the reason the Goddamned Beta Trials were created in the first place.

All those old Beta bastards on the council wanted a piece of Omega pie too, growing jealous of us Alphas for keeping them all to ourselves.

But as far as I"m concerned, they are free to have Belle.

She is no concern of mine.

Yet it seems Rian doesn"t quite share my sentiment, and this is going to create a rift between us.

It makes no sense. Well, at least to me. Because I am the only one who knows his secret.

Why would he be attracted to an Omega?

Alphas, Betas, sure, but… him?

Rian sighs. "Troy, you weren"t there… You didn"t see how lost she looked. I think she is telling the truth. The real question is where the hell she came from, and who has been keeping this secret from her?"

I hadn"t dared let my mind venture there, but now that I think about it, she must have come from outside the city limits, and dread fills my stomach when I think about the horrors she must have endured.

It"s grim beyond the city. Betas are free to do as they please, creating their own rules, and my body grows cold all over.

Still. I swallow the dread, keeping my wits about me.

Not our problem.

Like I said, she will only bring us trouble.

I don"t give a shit who she is running from.

As long as she keeps them far away from us.

These idiots have no idea what they have brought down on all of us, and it"s only a matter of time before she brings us to ruin.

Best to nip it in the bud before it has a chance to grow.

Belle will only cause us misery.

"So… when does she leave?"

All three of them look at me aghast.

I curl my fists. "You can"t all be serious? Why the fuck would you want to get involved in whatever shithole she crawled from? She is not our problem."

"Watch your tongue, Troy…" Leo whispers in warning, and this is stupid.

I can"t be the only one here who sees sense.

Rian looks at me appalled, and that"s the first time he has ever regarded me that way. "Troy, she"s an innocent girl who"s obviously in a lot of trouble. We can"t just let her go. Whether we like it or not, she is now our responsibility."

I glance at Jeremy. He"s quiet, resting his face in the palm of his hand.

"What about you, genius? You"re the expert when it comes to runaways. Do we keep her?"

The Alpha looks at me, and I see the same conflict in his gray eyes.

Leo, however, has never looked more certain of anything in his life, and Rian too.

Although he"s a little more hesitant.

The Beta meets my eyes. "Troy… she is staying…"

I shoot up, storming across the room to him. "Rian, please… see sense. She will only bring us trouble… think about it…"

My voice trails off as I am aware of Leo and Jeremy. They watch us curiously.

Jeremy leans back on his seat. "Don"t stop on our account."

Quickly, I meet Rian"s eyes. He shakes his head, and I guess that"s that.

We hold on to his secret a little longer.

I take his face in my hands, meeting those shining green eyes. "I only want what is best for you, Rian."

The Beta closes his eyes, and it looks like his mind is set.

A growl snaps from my throat. "You"ve all lost your freaking minds, losing your heads over some doe-eyed Omega. How do we know we can even trust her?"

Rian"s eyes land somewhere behind me, his face suddenly pale. "Troy…"

But I"m already on a roll. Why stop now?

Let"s dig the knife in deeper.

"She needs to go. As if she has no idea she"s an Omega—"

I stop when I catch that bitter caramel, shutting my eyes.

Fuck. So, that was what Rian was trying to warn me about.

Well, she was going to learn my true feelings about her eventually.

I don"t meet her eyes. In fact, I haven"t even had a chance to look at her.

She was fast asleep in Rian"s arms when she first arrived.

But even that small glimpse was enough to confirm how beautiful she was.

And that just makes her even more deadly.

She retreats, running up the stairs, and Leo and Rian rush after her like the idiots they are. Leo even shoves me aside, and Rian tosses me an irritated look.

I don"t care.

She"s not my problem.

I fall back into the chair, aware of Jeremy"s eyes. "Don"t fucking start…"

He shrugs. "I wasn"t going to say anything."

The clock continues to click on the mantle, and this is great.

My mate is mad at me now, and I am still freaking hard.

What does an Alpha have to do around here to get some release?